Everyone in the UX space (and design, and dev... Okay, everyone) knows it's all about the details. There are even websites dedicated to showing the fine level of detail people go to in order to enhance the user experience.
One such example is the Nintendo game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf for Nintendo 3DS.
Happy fun party bench-building celebration time!
Yes, I played the original Animal Crossing game for GameCube back in 2001, and now I play the 2012 re-release pretty much every morning riding the metro to work. (I'm living Rover's dream!)
Animal Crossing is basically "Life: The Game, With Animals." You exit a train arriving at a strange town you've never heard of, where all the townsfolk are animals, and you are swindled into becoming mayor. On top of that, you are forced into a mortgage by a crazy mafioso raccoon. It is your duty to make all your townsfolk happy by doing favors and errands for them, and keeping the town pristine and full of public works projects. ...At a glance, it doesn't sound that fun. But it's addictive, and I'll explain why.
No! I don't want a house!
Here are a few details that Animal Crossing uses to keep me coming back for more.
1. Brewster's Coffee
In real life, I like my coffee with lots of milk. LOTS of it. When you unlock the town cafe, the barista (Brewster the rooster) asks you how you like your coffee. You can select from 4 different coffee beans, and select how much cream and sugar you like. I keep asking him for Kilimanjaro beans, 2 spoonfuls of sugar, and "LOTS of [milk]!"
Why yes, I like some coffee in my milk.
Not only can you customize your coffee, but the shade of the coffee he serves you actually changes with the amount of milk you add. If you walk in and order a black coffee the next day, it will be noticeably darker than my cup of hot milk with some coffee in it!
There's a cup of big girl coffee right there.
2. Dream Suite
Do you ever wish you could take naps at work? (Yes.) Well, you can in Animal Crossing!
The Dream Suite pays you in-game money to frequently update your town's landscape and save it to the internet for strangers to see. It's a way for you to visit and go sightseeing in random towns of other players around the world, or a place for you to show off your town's awesomeness.
1 sheep... 2 sheep... 3 sheep...
This is also the only place you can shamelessly destroy someone else's town, wreaking sheer and utter havoc, completely guilt-free. You know, stuff like chopping down ALL the trees and stepping on EVERY flower. What happens in dream world, stays in dream world.
Ooooh, pretty lights...
3. Birthdays
I'm a huge dork and I have my favorite townsperson. He is a wolf named Fang, and he's been my favorite ever since the Nintendo Gamecube release. This year, Fang was the one to host a surprise birthday party for me!
*Squee!*
He came to my house in the morning when I opened up the game, and told me he had a surprise waiting at his house... I was only a little bit weirded out, but as we walked into his house, a cute birthday tune plays in the background as my townspeople (...townsanimals?) are cheering and wishing me happy birthday, with a big, beautiful Nintendo cake sitting on the table!
The cake at the end of Super Mario 64
The Animal Crossing birthday cake
4. Gulliver
A tip of a hat to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, this enthusiastic man-child of a seagull brings you exotic (yet stereotypical) wares from around the world, as long as you can guess the place he's talking about.
He washes up on the beach about once a week, recounting a tale of how his ship his a big storm and he was thrown overboard (again). Then you remind him where he was going, and are repaid handsomely with rare in-game items!
5. Resetti
Last but not least, let's not forget that adorably cranky mole that taught us to always save our games.
Please don't hurt me.
Resetti makes a comeback in this game with his own underground Reset Center. He pretty much only appears if you quit your game without saving (because that is a horrible thing to do, and you are horrible for doing so).
He even does this thing where he yells at you for a LONG time... Seriously, minutes of your life being lectured by a digital rodent about saving your game. Then, what does he do?
He makes your TV screen go blank.
MR. RESETTI. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME.
Well, he used to. He won't do that to your 3DS (thank goodness). But, us kids did learn our lesson by having that gut-wrenching feeling of losing your saved progress or breaking your game because you displeased The Machine. And that terrifying respect for Mr. Resetti has been with us ever since.
I love you, too.